Edmundston mayor calls for action after 2nd day of power outages
Fire chief in northwestern N.B. city says reason for outages still isn't clear
Edmundston Mayor Eric Marquis is calling on N.B. Power to improve the reliability of its transmission network to the northwest after power outages on back-to-back days.
"We want, once and for all, to receive guarantees that the needed investments will be made in the very near future to avoid this type of situation," Marquis said during an update streamed live on the city's Facebook page.
"Our residents have been suffering for too many years because of the inaction of N.B. Power in our area."
Thousands of households in the area lost power Wednesday morning for the second straight day — and as temperatures hovered in the minus mid-20s.
Marquis said N.B. Power has implemented a temporary fix but is continuing to investigate what caused the dual outages. He added that he will meet soon with N.B. Power officials and Premier Susan Holt to discuss the infrastructure problems in the region.
Some community members are frustrated over the lack of answers from the utility.
"I really wish there was more answers," said Melissa Bougie, who spent most of Tuesday without electricity and spoke in an interview Wednesday after her home went dark again.
She was among 4,800 Edmundston-area customers who lost power the day after a nearly identical outage left 4,900 people without it for about eight hours.
Power was restored around 11 a.m. Wednesday, according to N.B. Power's outage map.
N.B. Power said in a social media post that the outage is due to an issue on the same transmission line that caused Tuesday's outage.
"Our team is working on the issue immediately and will do everything possible to restore power as quickly as we can," the post reads.
"We understand how frustrating and challenging repeated outages can be, especially during these weather conditions, and we sincerely apologize for the inconvenience."
N.B. Power supplies electricity to Edmundston Energy, one of three local utilities in New Brunswick.
CBC made interview requests to N.B. Power, but no one was made available.
"Our focus is on restoring power to all impacted customers," N.B. Power spokesperson Dominique Couture said in an email. "For that reason we won't be able to do an interview at this time."
The second outage came as the northwestern New Brunswick region continues to experience cold temperatures. According to Environment Canada the temperature as of 10 a.m. was -24 with a windchill of -28.
Bougie, who has multiple sclerosis, said she struggles to stay warm at the best of times.
"With my MS symptoms, I'm pretty cold compared to the average person," she said. "Right now, I'm bundled up pretty badly. While everybody else just has sweaters I have snow pants on.
"I get so cold I shiver while everybody is just fine."
Jacques Doiron, the Edmundston fire chief and EMO co-ordinator, told CBC News that the city hasn't had a real explanation for Tuesday's outage from the utility.
"It's exactly the same as yesterday, the concerns are exactly the same," Doiron said. "The people are more frustrated though, because now it's like the second time in two days that they don't have any electricity so we do understand how they're feeling.
"Unfortunately we are just affected by an N.B. Power problem. We're trying to get some answers also to see why it happened again, what's going on, why is it there again, but unfortunately we don't have those answers."
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